Transparency, transparency, transparency.
I shudder to think about the amount of money that was placed on the nose of The Jukebox Man in the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival. Harry Redknapp, jumps racing enthusiast and national treasure, had been on every radio and television station, expressing his love for the sport and most importantly, his horse. The everyman was putting on a fiver, ‘cos ‘Arry told them to’.
The Jukebox Man was ready for the challenge. Oh no, wait.
Asked about the ‘small setback’ revealed by Redknapp on Sky Sports Racing on Gold Cup morning, trainer Ben Pauling said: “We heard a little bit of a breathing noise on the Monday morning before last. He had a little pimple that we needed to remove and make sure it wasn't obstructing the airway.”
Sorry, what? The most talked about horse in National Hunt racing has had a minor setback, weeks before the biggest race of the season, and we didn’t know until he was walking round the paddock?
Come on guys. Help me out here.
I know what you’re thinking, reading this. When does it end? When do trainers need to tell us things and when should they not? If we knew about every stone trodden on, every muscle tweaked, every poor piece of work – we’d never have a bet.
I don’t have the answers. But we can all agree, this isn’t a good look.
And we’ve been fighting a losing battle all week.
The starts. Numerous top-level races began with a false start, leaving racegoers and owners furious. The BHA sent out a press release on Thursday, pre-empting anticipated outrage.
‘Following events this year it is clear that more needs to be done. As such the BHA has committed to launch a full review of the starts at the Cheltenham Festival.’
Lovely, but the BHA did that last year and here we are again.
I’m fascinated by Ruby Walsh’s comments on a ‘rolling start’ being a possible option.
“You need a rolling start,” he told ITV Racing viewers. "I’ve said it for a long time. If they walk in front of a tape and then it moves in front of the horses, you’d have none of this drama.
“We can send missiles after fighter planes in the Gulf but nobody can design a rolling flyaway tape. That’s the joke.”
Harness racing has been using a starting vehicle and moving barrier for, well, years. It’s an idea and one that should be brought to the table. There will be more solutions out there, more concepts that could be nurtured to fruition but it needs to be addressed now.
There is a dizzying amount of racing on a day-to-day basis in the UK and Ireland. Find a five-runner novice chase on a quiet Wednesday and try it. Try a rolling start, or something else, and see what people think. Try, and don’t be afraid to fail.
Chaos at the start of the Turners Novices’ Hurdle threw up another front-page headline. Irish amateur jockey Declan Queally lodged a formal complaint with the stewards after receiving alleged racial abuse from fellow jockey Nico De Boinville as the pair jostled for position. Both expressed their frustration in the beaten jockey interviews to ITV and it was, correctly, escalated to the attention of the BHA.
Former jump jockey Davy Russell, demonstrating arbitration qualities that would make the Middle East envious, managed to get Queally to shake hands with ‘maybe he should look in the mirror’ De Boinville in the doorway of the jockeys’ weighing room on Thursday morning. Great, problem solved.
Except, where does that leave the formal BHA investigation? There are procedures to be followed, and the wider world are left wondering if all racial allegations are resolved in racing with a ‘shake and make up’ moment, like two errant toddlers. It’s an embarrassment and should have been managed through formal interviews on both ITV and Racing TV, leaving the sport with some semblance of credibility.
I don’t have the answers.
But I think we can do better, if we all put our heads together.
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